Elope
by aphelion-orion
Summary: Sometimes, you have to run away to see who will follow you. Fayt makes a decision after the game's end. [slight shounen ai]


**Title:** Elope  
**Fandom:** Star Ocean 3  
**Pairing / Characters:** Fayt, Albel  
**Rating:** G  
**Warnings: **Extremely light shounen ai, if you choose to read it that way; very, very minor spoilers... if you consider the fact that they win back their universe a spoiler (and c'mon, hands up all those who thought they wouldn't).  
**Notes:** This was written as a tie-in... "how would Albel and Fayt end up together after the game?"-sort of thing. Also, C&C is highly appreciated.

**-  
Elope**

_"Sometimes, you need to run away to see who will follow."  
-_

It was over. It really was over.

Fayt still had trouble believing that they had won. Looking at the victory celebrations going on around him, the way people would just suddenly fall into each other's arms in sheer elation, he knew he was not the only one. However, a nagging feeling had begun to permeate the haze of happiness that surrounded him, and made it impossible to truly enjoy the party.

Thinking back on it, the feeling had started when he had been watching Maria packing her things and getting ready to leave. After the victory party, she would take one of the Diplo's shuttles and vanish to parts unknown, to lead the peaceful life she had always longed for. But to be able to make her dream become reality, she would have to literally disappear off the cosmic stage, lest some party - be it remnants of the Federation or someone else – should try to use her for her power.

Fayt had felt an inexplicable lump in the back of his throat when she had pressed a slip of paper containing the code of a secure communication channel into his hand - the only means of contacting her, and only in case of an emergency. It felt sad, almost bitter, to think that her ultimate reward was a life of running and hiding, that he wouldn't be able to see Maria whenever he wanted to. Fayt had always known that their group would disband soon after the fight, but he had somehow hoped that reality would not interfere like that, that his friends would always be just a shuttle flight away, that they could call each other whenever they wanted to talk.

It was slowly starting to sink in that the same life awaited him. He would not be able to return to Earth with Sophia as she hoped - Sophia would be all right, though; after all, she was the only one out of the three of them whose powers were now useless. With the Eternal Sphere completely severed from 4D-space, Sophia's connection gene was nothing more than a key to a lock which no longer existed. As Cliff had pointed out, attempting to be reassuring in his own way, the only way she would ever be of use to anyone was as a figurehead - and Fayt knew Sophia well enough to be sure that she would sooner smite any shady characters with a spell than allow herself to be used.

Fayt's powers, on the other hand, were still fully accessible to him, which meant he could not simply return to his old life, and he would have to spend the rest of his new one sleeping with his eyes open. Eternal vigilance was the only suitable price for freedom, after all.

Turning his glass slowly in his hand, the blue-haired boy idly watched the amber-colored liquid slosh around. He really would have liked to leave those pressing thoughts for tomorrow, but the nagging feeling was urging him on, not about to slip his mind now that it had forced him to pay attention to it.

Cliff had said to leave everything to him. He had already scrambled a plan to whisk Fayt away to Klaus III, where they would lay low for a while, then maybe enroll Fayt in a college to let him finish his education, and after that... Fayt was not sure what came after that, but he was certain Cliff would have something ready for him when the time came.

But that was what was bothering him, wasn't it? Watching all his friends and the crewmembers only made it painfully clear how different they were from him. Except for Maria, all of them would return to what they called their normal lives, going wherever they wanted to go, doing whatever they wished to do. He, though, would forever remain within the boundaries someone else had laid out for him. First his father, now Cliff, and in the future, undoubtedly someone else.

After all the freedom he had enjoyed, all the excitement of the past few weeks, the thought of giving all that up seemed like a slow death sentence. Chains were still chains, no matter if they were golden.

Frowning, Fayt set down his glass on the conference table, and made his way towards the exit.

He never noticed red eyes following his every move, narrowing dangerously as he slipped out the door.

----

As the shuttle ramp's gates slid open, then closed, Fayt released a small sigh of relief. It seemed as if the mere closing of a door put a distance between himself and his friends, and lessened the pull he felt towards them. Even the annoying little voice that had been yammering at him to just turn back, to have faith in Cliff, to stop being selfish, to stop ignoring everybody's feelings, had quieted down, more a nagging jabber in the back of his head than the shrilly shrieking banshee it had been minutes before.

It wasn't a lack of faith that drove him out here, or a lack of love for his friends, but the wish to continue making his own decisions. He had no illusions about that; it wouldn't always be easy, and when Cliff found the slip of paper with his communication sequence scrawled on it, he would undoubtedly never hear the end of it, but that was what growing up was about, wasn't it? If he let it, his love would be holding him back, at the least make him want to say goodbye, and then he would probably let himself be talked out of leaving, since there were probably a million good reasons why he shouldn't be doing this, and only one good reason why he should.

A quick override code opened the left shuttle's sliding door, and he hopped in to stow away his belongings. Strange to think that his new life was going to fit into this bag, but then again, there were so many things from his old life that he had realized he could do without, so many things he had realized were unnecessary vanities, that it seemed… suitable. A clean slate. How many people got to do that, he wondered.

He turned back to stare through the open shuttle door, and for a moment, allowed himself to picture his friends' reactions. Sophia would cry, undoubtedly, and then get mad at him, but he hadn't dared to leave her his contact number, because she was going back to Earth. Mirage would take it in stride, as she did everything, Nel would probably be disappointed in him, and Albel would… he wasn't too sure what Albel would do. Anything seemed possible, from being indifferent to getting mad. Out of everyone, Maria would probably be the only one to understand. Cliff would certainly swear up a blue streak, as he hated nothing more than having his plans thwarted, especially for a 'kid's' harebrained ideas and ideals.

Fayt couldn't even fault him for that. The entire enterprise was pretty much a harebrained one, since he had left without sleeping over it, and without notifying anyone first, and he was technically stealing a shuttle. He didn't even have a specific goal or destination in mind. For now, though, it seemed enough to just put a few light years between himself and the Diplo, and then start looking for some underdeveloped planet or another where no one knew him and he could have as many adventures as he pleased.

He swallowed and slipped into the narrow cockpit to begin a routine check on the instruments. Briefly, he wondered if he should attempt to hack the computer, to prevent it from notifying the bridge about the opening of the airlock, but then dismissed the idea. It would take too much time, and everyone was too busy partying, anyway.

"Where do you think you are going, fool?"

Fayt nearly suffered a heart attack at the sound of the disembodied voice, before swiveling in his seat to spot Albel leaning against the cockpit's doorframe, just as smug as you please.

"What the--?! Albel!" was all Fayt could choke out accusingly, still trying to get his heart to slow down to a normal rate.

The swordsman straightened from his casual pose, eyes darting around the foreign vessel. "I sincerely hope you weren't planning on leaving for another interesting place without telling me."

Fayt had the feeling he should really be trying for something other than his 'landed fish'-expression, as Albel crossed the remaining distance and smoothly slid into the co-pilot seat. He must have gaped for a little longer than he had absolutely intended, because Albel waved his claw impatiently, gesturing towards the glowing rows of gauges and buttons. "Well? Weren't you in the middle of something?"

Numbly, Fayt entered the command to start the shuttle's rotation. "You know, Albel…" he began carefully. "I have to leave for a while. For a very long while, in fact. I don't know where exactly I'll be going, but I can't take any detours. So you better talk to Cliff about dropping you off at Elicoor."

"Whoever said I was going back there?" Albel made the word sound like something particularly unpleasant he had discovered under the heel of his boot.

"You mean you're not?" Fayt blinked at him curiously.

Obviously figuring that he was a little slow on the uptake, Albel slid the metal latch of the safety harness into place as if he had been doing it all his life. "What does it look like?"

Albel really seemed intent on following through with this insanity. This was probably the most unexpected thing that had happened to him in his life, aside from the whole being a weapon of mass destruction bit. It made him happy, of course, to think of having company on this whole escape thing, and Albel could be pleasant to be with when he wasn't having mood swings or calling Fayt by the names of random invertebrates. Still, he had to make a last-ditch attempt at convincing Albel that this wasn't exactly the best idea he'd ever had – he might have considered the swordsman a trusted friend, but he had no idea about Albel's take on things.

"Are you really sure about this? I'm telling you now, I have no idea when I'll come near Elicoor again, so you had better be prepared to put up with me for a really long time."

The shuttle beeped as it reached its starting position, and a little warning signal sounded as its doors began closing.

Albel smirked. "I'm sure I'll manage. If you're getting on my nerves, I'll just have to find ways to deal with you."

Fayt let out a soft, pleased laugh. At the flick of a finger, the airlock began sliding open. "Well then, I hope you're resourceful. I'm told I can put up quite a fight if I need to," he quipped, easily falling into the routine of teasing he had established with the other man.

Albel's smirk turned downright disturbing. "Don't worry. I'm told I can be very creative when I want to."

When the thrusters fired and he was pressed into the seat as they left the greater gravity zone of the Diplo, Fayt couldn't help but grin back. The old urge to one-up Albel was still there. "I'm looking forward to it."

--------

**A/N:** Whee! Writing Fayt is fun. I just hope I got him right. I don't think I made Albel OOC… writing the dialogue with him came very naturally, as I was reminded very much of his appearance at the Kirlsa Facility on Disc 2: Just like here… hands up everyone who believes that those were Albel's true motives! ((glances at silent audience)) Yeah, didn't think so. XD

Ah, Fayt, you have no idea what you're getting into. ((eyes leering Albel))

_Author's Technobabble:_  
- I'm picturing all the shuttles on a little rotation platform that starts moving to get them into a lift-off position… maybe even a miniature runway that automatically taxies the shuttle to the airlock.  
- I'm also picturing the airlock as locked by a force field (think 'Star Trek') to prevent all the air and stuff from being sucked into space whenever it opens. Shuttles… just pass through it, or something. Don't ask me, I'm not Gene Roddenberry.  
- About the gravity bit… the Diplo has more mass, therefore more artificial gravity potential. The shuttle has less mass, and although equipped with some sort of gravity generator, one would automatically feel the effect. I'm imagining escaping a gravity field like taking off in a plane.

Reviews make the authoress very happy, by the way. :-)


End file.
